NORTHAMPTON — Amid the accounting of the terrible deeds done and the pain and suffering caused by the arson spree that befell this city Dec. 27, 2009, were some stories of heroic behavior and public servants who went above and beyond the call of duty.

Judge Constance Sweeney made note of that Wednesday during the sentencing hearing for arsonist Anthony Baye, 28, in talking about the community as a whole, and the firefighters and police officers who responded to the scenes of multiple, dangerous fires that night.

“The way Northampton and its citizens responded is something we can learn from,” said Sweeney.

The firefighters and police officers who turned out that night, she said, “were just heroic in their actions that night.”

Sweeney said witness testimony about the police response to the 17 Fair St., home where Paul Yeskie Sr. and Paul Yeskie Jr. perished that night brought that fact home to her in a powerful way.

“It was a conflagration at the Yeskie home,” she said, when Northampton Patrol Officer Kenneth Kirchner arrived on the scene.

“This officer desperately tried to get into this house that was burning down around him,” Sweeney said.

He was assisted by other first responders, some of whom came from communities outside Northampton to respond to a call of a city in trouble, she said.

“They fought to the last possible moment to save Paul Yeskie Sr. and Paul Yeskie Jr., and only when the flames came over the roof to attack them did they stop,” she said. “It was an amazing intersection of community response.”

At a press conference after the sentencing hearing, Brett Vottero, the special prosecutor who handled the Baye case, also highlighted some of the people he said acted in exemplary ways.

“In almost 30 years as a lawyer, I have never seen a case filled with so many heroes,” he said. Among them:

∎ Two dispatchers who worked at the city’s emergency dispatch center that night, staying calm and focused under enormous pressure. “They handled all the calls, the 911 calls, police and fire dispatches, other calls — that’s the overwhelming part,” he said. “They handled all of that and they handled it extremely well.”

∎ Northampton Police Detective Corey Robinson, who stopped Anthony Baye at 3:30 a.m. the night of the fires, engaging him in conversation for 20 minutes, “because his instincts told him something wasn’t right.” Robinson, Vottero said, asked Baye questions that elicited answers that would later prove important because of the inconsistencies they revealed in his accounting of his actions that night.

“They were just good instincts and they were followed up within 24 hours when he made contact again” with Baye, said Vottero.

∎ State Trooper William Medina, of the state police investigative unit attached to the district attorney’s office, “who also had an instinct he followed up.” Medina’s suspicions about some of Baye’s answers to questions in one interview led to another interview during which more inconsistencies were revealed.

NORTHAMPTON — The men killed in a fire started by convicted arsonist Anthony Baye were recalled in court Wednesday as “great gentlemen” whose loss wouldn’t be tempered by any amount of jail time. Baye was sentenced to 19 to 20 years in state prison for causing the deaths of Paul Yeskie Sr., 81, and his son Paul Yeskie Jr., 39, …

In those awful days following the fires set Dec. 27, 2009, people set up beds for themselves on living room couches to stand guard against an unknown arsonist. Less than 12 hours after the first fire ignited with the flick of a cigarette lighter, while an overpowering smell of charred wood still hung heavily over the eastern fringe of the …

NORTHAMPTON — Minutes after Anthony Baye was shackled and led out of court to begin serving his prison sentence, Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan said, “The journey to justice has ended.” Sullivan spoke at a press conference held Wednesday after Baye, 28, was sentenced to 19 to 20 years in state prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter, arson and …

NORTHAMPTON — When Anthony Baye pleaded guilty in Hampden Superior Court Monday, he admitted to 36 charges connected to a string of fires on Dec. 27, 2009, and 12 additional charges related to earlier fires, dating back to 2007. The following is a list of all 48 charges and their corresponding dates and locations: Jan. 19, 2007 One count arson …